Reversing previous session's losses, Indian equity benchmarks ended higher on Tuesday, on account of broad based buying in blue chip counters despite negative cues from global markets. After making slightly positive start, key gauges slipped into red, as exporters expressed concerns over rising freight charges and shortage of containers as it would impact the country's outbound shipments, and sought Commerce Ministry's intervention in the matter. But, markets soon recovered and traded higher with marginal gains, taking support from a report that it could be a healthy sign of economic recovery, goods and services tax (GST) collections recorded in the month of October are likely to cross Rs 1 lakh crore for the first time this fiscal. Some support also came in with British drug maker AstraZeneca Plc stating that the Covid-19 vaccine being developed by the University of Oxford produced an immune response in both elderly and young people and adverse reactions were lower among the elderly. Markets extended gains in second half of session to end near day's high, as traders took encouragement, as Reserve Bank asked all lending institutions, including non-banking financial companies, to implement the waiver of interest on interest for loans up to Rs 2 crore for the six months moratorium period beginning March 1, 2020. On October 23, the government had announced the scheme for grant of ex-gratia payment of difference between compound interest and simple interest for six months to borrowers in specified loan accounts. Some support also came with rating agency CRISIL stated that over 40% of banking system credit and 75% of borrowers are likely to benefit from interest-on-interest concession granted by the federal government. Further, hopes of higher inflows after MSCI said it will implement the new regime on foreign ownership limits in the MSCI Global Indexes containing Indian securities in the November 2020 Semi Annual Index Review, also boosted investor sentiment. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 376.60 points or 0.94% to 40,522.10, while the CNX Nifty was up by 121.65 points or 1.03% to 11,889.40.

The US markets ended mostly lower on Tuesday amid concerns about the recent spike in coronavirus cases as well as continued uncertainty about the prospects for a new stimulus bill. Caution continues to hang over markets. Coronavirus counts keep climbing at a troubling rate across much of the United States and Europe. The worry is that could lead to the return of lockdowns in hopes of slowing the pandemic's spread, which could further choke off the improvements the economy showed during the summer. Traders were also reacting to some mixed economic data, with separate reports showing a jump in durable goods orders and an unexpected dip in consumer confidence. The Commerce Department released a report before the start of trading showing new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods jumped by much more than expected in the month of September. The report said durable goods orders surged up by 1.9 percent in September after rising by rising by 0.4 percent in August. Street had expected durable goods orders to increase by 0.5 percent. The much stronger than expected growth in durable goods orders came as orders for transportation equipment soared by 4.1 percent in September after slumping by 0.9 percent in August. Meanwhile, the Conference Board released a report unexpectedly showing a slight drop in confidence in the month of October. The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index edged down to 100.9 in October after jumping to a revised 101.3 in September. The pullback surprised market participants, who had expected the index to inch up to 102.0 from the 101.8 originally reported for the previous month.

Crude oil futures ended higher on Tuesday on reports about evacuation of over 150 offshore facilities along the U.S. Gulf Coast due to Hurricane Zeta. Several producers including BP, Chevron and Equinor have reportedly evacuated platforms and halted production, due to the hurricane which is expected to sweep across the resort area and move through Gulf of Mexico oil fields. The closure of key facilities across the Gulf of Mexico due to Hurricane Zeta has resulted in shutting down of about 16% or close to 300,000 barrels per day of oil output. Crude oil futures for December rose $1.01 or 2.6 percent to settle at $39.57 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. December Brent crude gained 74 cents or 1.8 percent to settle at $41.20 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.

Indian rupee ended stronger against dollar on Tuesday due to fresh selling of the American currency by banks and exporters. Sentiments were positive with a report that in what could be a healthy sign of economic recovery, goods and services tax (GST) collections recorded in the month of October as it likely to cross Rs 1 lakh crore for the first time this fiscal. However, upside remain capped as exporters have expressed concerns over rising freight charges and shortage of containers as it would impact the country's outbound shipments, and sought Commerce Ministry's intervention in the matter. On the global front, dollar clung to gains on Tuesday, but other safe-haven currencies were mostly quiet as investors sat on the sidelines ahead of next week's US election, even as worries about a second wave of COVID-19 and economic impact rose. Finally, the rupee ended at 73.71, 13 paise stronger from its previous close of 73.84 on Monday.

The FIIs as per Tuesday's data were net buyer in equity segment, while net seller in debt segment. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 5348.59 crore against gross selling of Rs 5237.80 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 1176.22 crore with gross sales of Rs 1222.88 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs 1.28 crore against gross selling of Rs 7.04 crore.

The US markets ended mostly in red on Tuesday as Trump acknowledged an economic relief package would likely come after the 3 November election. Asian markets are trading lower on Wednesday as coronavirus infections continue to rise stateside. Indian markets ended higher after heavy buying interest in banks, FMCG, auto and pharma stocks. Today, the start of session is likely to be negative tailing weakness in the global markets. There will be some cautiousness with report that a day after recording the lowest number of fresh Covid-19 cases since July 18, India on Tuesday reported a daily jump of 42,965, even as the tally soared to 7,988,853. Market participants will be concerned with the central bank's statement that Indian states are racking up more debt to fund the prospect of wider budget deficits as they step up spending to fight the virus pandemic. Though, some respite may come later in the day with union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman's statement that she expects India to become one of the fastest-growing economies by FY22 With pick-up in demand and manufacturing. However, she expects a near-zero percent growth in the third and fourth quarters of FY21 with steady and sustainable growth. Some support may come  as  the Reserve Bank asked all lending institutions, including non-banking financial companies, to implement the waiver of interest on interest for loans up to Rs 2 crore for the six months moratorium period beginning March 1, 2020. Traders may take note of report that the government may extend the MSME loan scheme, ECLGS (Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme), beyond October to achieve Rs 3 lakh crore of guaranteed loans to businesses. Besides, investors will track the assembly elections in Bihar, where the first phase of voting begins today, as well as the Covid trend. E-commerce sector stocks will be in focus with report that appliances and consumer electronics companies have reported high double-digit growth in sales during this Navratri season, with e-commerce platforms seeing good traction as shoppers opt for contactless buying. There will be lots of earnings reaction based on the performance of the companies.

Support and Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)

Nifty Top volumes

• HCL Technologies has completed acquisition of Cisco's Self Optimizing Network Technology. 
• SBI has raised Rs 5,000 crore by issuing Basel-III compliant bonds. 
• TCS has entered into partnership with Volt to power Volt 2.0, next-generation BaaS platform.  
• Kotak Mahindra Bank has reported 22.41% rise in its consolidated net profit at Rs 2946.62 crore for Q2FY21 as against net profit of Rs 2407.25 crore for Q2FY20.